Looking at your fingers

Hi all,

I'm pretty new to this, but so far enjoying learning something new from scratch!

I have found it much easier and reassuring to look at my fingers while practicing to ensure I have them in the right place.

I understand this is a no-no, but I wondered whether I should make a serious effort right now to cut it out, or wait until I'm more confident with the postions of the strings? Any advice would be most welcome!

It will be good when you no longer have to look at your fingers all the time. It is normal that you start off looking at your hands. But as you evolve your skills you should work on not keeping your eyes glued on your fingers all the time.

All guitarist do look at the neck,but they are not staring at their fingers, they are occasionally looking to find where their next position on the neck is. It is kind of like a runner who at first has to look at each placement of their feet. But it is hard to anticipate varriations on the trail surface when you are always stareing at you feet. It is analogous to how much you should look at your hands.

Once you get your chords down to the point you can grab them on a moment's notice and sucessfully change chords, in time, along with the songs rythum. You should start working on not looking at your hands all the time. If you have to change you hand position up or down the neck, then looking for the spot on the fretboard where you place your fretting hand is a good habit. Like the runner, you have to watch where you are going as you adapt to the changes in the trails path (or the chords and riffs that make up the song's progression).

I would not make it a do or die task. You adapt as your skill grows. I would make it a long term project that you try to incorprate in all the music you practice. Over time you will stare at you fingers less and less and your chord changes and riffs will become timely and consise.

One more trick for weaning yourself off of stareing could be to practice in front of a mirror. That way you can ease your body into the new posture and still easily check on your fingers in the mirror. Then you just work at looking at those fingers a little less each time. By taking these baby steps your body learns to relax in a posture that spends much less time looking at the fretboard.

I also remember working to burn the chord fingering into my muscle memory. I would take my hand through forming the chords in the air, or on my fretboard, or on my right forearm (not strumming... just working on practicing placing my fingers in the proper configeration of the chord. I would just jump form one chord form to another until it just became second nature. Once I had these chord forms burned into my hand and fingers, it was easy to look at my fingers and hand less and less.

At least that is what I remember, of how I got past looking at my freting hand all the time. Hope it helps you .

Originally Posted by: simongreen2500

Hi all,

I'm pretty new to this, but so far enjoying learning something new from scratch!

I have found it much easier and reassuring to look at my fingers while practicing to ensure I have them in the right place.

I understand this is a no-no, but I wondered whether I should make a serious effort right now to cut it out, or wait until I'm more confident with the postions of the strings? Any advice would be most welcome!

Hey simongreen2500,

It's not a no-no! The only reason to NOT look at your fingers is if you want to be looking at other things: notation, your band members, an audience? It's a totally normal part of the process to look at your fingers. All guitarists do, unless they're blind. :/

You'll eventually need to look less and less, but don't even worry about it. This isn't something to concern yourself with.

-Carl.

Thanks both, that's really reassuring. I've jut started melodies and have already noticed that as I'm watching something else I'm doing mostly fine not looking.

you are on the right track!